Paris Saint-Germain’s path to claiming the Ligue 1 title in record time this weekend was cleared on Friday as nearest challengers AS Monaco were held 2-2 at home by Stade de Reims.
A win at lowly ESTAC Troyes today would give Laurent Blanc’s side 77 points — 25 more than Monaco, who are currently second with 52 points after 30 games — and a fourth successive crown to round out an excellent week after reaching the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals.
Until now, the fastest a team has won the Ligue 1 title was after 33 games, when Gerard Houllier led Olympique Lyonnais to the crown in 2007.
Photo: Reuters
Monaco are targeting the second direct Champions League spot, with Leonardo Jardim’s side having no room for error with Lyon — the only team to beat the Parisians this season — third, seven points behind them.
Monaco had gotten off to a bright start, with winter signing Vagner Love getting a first-half double.
The Brazilian opened after just five minutes at Stade Louis II, only for Gaetan Charbonnier to get the equalizer six minutes later following a superb cross from Nicolas de Preville. Vagner got his second on 37 minutes following an error by Charbonnier, only for fellow Brazilian Diego to pull Reims level after 79 minutes, to secure a precious point as they sit three points above the drop zone.
“Our situation is not good,” Jardim said.
“I am not happy. At 2-1, we had the chance to score a third and we missed. When you miss the third goal, you give a lot of confidence to your rivals,” he added.
“There are eight games left, 24 points to collect. The third [placed team] will play against the fourth [Stade Rennais-Lyon], both will not win,” he added.
Lyon, coming off last weekend’s 5-1 win against En Avant de Guingamp, travel to Rennes today, with the hosts also in impressive form having beaten Nantes 4-1 on Sunday last week.
Rennes are just a point behind Lyon along with OGC Nice.
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